Owners of rezoned property clear up confusion about land

Two property owners in North Jackson have tried for years to get their land rezoned, and now that it’s done, they are trying to clear up confusion they have encountered about it.

Retired dentist Milton Cravens and Ray Davis, an employee at West Tennessee Healthcare, own adjoining lots on the northeast corner of the intersection of Oil Well Road and Pleasant Plains Road.

Cravens once had a rental house on his lot that he originally bought with plans of moving his practice to that corner.

Davis has lived in his house in the lot next door for more than 30 years.

Cravens said he tried multiple times, and it took 15 years to get the property rezoned from residential to office space.

'Something would always come up'

“I bought it to put my practice there, but I couldn’t do it because I never could get it rezoned,” Cravens said. “But something would always come up in the planning commission or the planning department that would keep it from being rezoned.”

There has been some confusion in the time since it was rezoned of whether or not they could sell. Also since it’s been rezoned, some businesses have expressed interest in the property, but never the right ones.

“A convenience store approached me, and retail outlets have too, but it’s not zoned for any of them,” Cravens said.

Zoning confusion

Office zoning means any kind of office work like a doctor’s office, real estate, bank or a similar type of business.

“The city designed it to be there to be kind of a buffer from all the retail and restaurants on Oil Well and at Thomsen Farms and the residential areas northwest of the intersection,” Davis said.

While each property owner is selling his lot separately, they both agree it would probably work best for a business to get both lots together for a total of 2.4 acres.

A house was already on the lot when Cravens bought it in 2002.

“I decided to rent it out until I could get it rezoned,” Cravens said. “Then I decided to sell it once I retired after I figured out I might not ever get it rezoned.”

Once Davis and his wife had an empty nest after his children left home, he decided he might want to sell his lot as well.

“We had people interested over the years but could never get it rezoned,” Davis said. “But now that it is, hopefully we can get it done.”

Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.